Archives for November 2014

This month we present a lightly edited excerpt from Chess Evolution Newsletter #143. CEWN is released every Friday of the week, the newsletter contains twenty-plus pages of great chess material written by top grandmasters Arkadij Naiditsch and Csaba Balogh.
Magnus Carlsen was Very, Very Lucky!
by Arkadij Naiditsch
Carlsen,Magnus (2863) - Anand,Viswanathan (2792)
WCh 2014 Sochi RUS (6), 15.11.2014
Sicilian Kan [B41]
We often hear people say that World Champions never blunder. In fact, World Champions blunder very rarely and even more rarely a one-move tactic. And what is even more rare is that after a blunder the opponent doesn't use the mistake, and this is precisely the case … [Read more...]

by Jeff Coakley
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the awards ceremony of the 2014 Puzzlers Cup. Tonight we are pleased to present the five winning problems from our second annual puzzle composing competition.
Special thanks to our generous sponsor ChessCafe.com for hosting the event. Each winner will receive a “shop coupon” from Shop.ChessCafe.com, which can be applied to any purchase from their extensive selection of chess products. The value of the coupons is as follows:
First prize $150
Second prize $100
Third prize $75
Honourable Mentions 2 x $50
Like last year, we received many interesting puzzles. The difficult task of selecting the five winners was performed … [Read more...]

How to Answer 1.d4 in CC
by Bo Bredenhof
Last month I discussed my experiences in how to answer 1.e4. This time I will talk about different answers to 1.d4.
I have tried many different opening variations over the years. I believe I started with 1...d5, with the Tartakower Defense as my main variation. This is very solid, and GM Adams has had a lot of success with it in OTB games. There is a problem of course; White do not have to comply. He often chooses the Exchange variation or the Bf4 QGD, just to mention two common alternatives. Both of these can be very difficult for Black to handle; and are more solid for White. The winning chances for Black are small in these variations.
I … [Read more...]

Lasker, Simultaneous Exhibitions, and the Languages of Chess Performance
by John S. Hilbert
Chess has been likened to many things, and perhaps most often to art. The “artist at the chessboard” image has been dragged forth often enough to warrant status as a venerable, if tiresome, cliché. Likening chess to sport has an equally long and listless pedigree. My favorite metaphor for the game is that of language: a language of the mind, requiring all the thought and effort involved in the learning of a foreign language, in order to speak it fluently, eloquently and forcefully across the board.
Undoubtedly this metaphor has ancient roots as well. There are more recent examples of it, of … [Read more...]

by Bruce Pandolfini
There is that silly opening principle/maxim "knights before bishops." And everyone knows that bishops are better than knights, right? Well, not always, for either truism. Now it is generally considered to be an easier task for a bishop to trap a knight, say by corralling it, than for a knight to snare a bishop. Perhaps. But knights also have their strengths. They can jump over things, though not tall buildings in a single bound. They can, however, do their special prancing, and that can lead to all kinds of insidious forks. The latter class of stratagem is mainly what happens in this present pack of ten. Just when the bishop thinks it is safe to take a swim, it forgets … [Read more...]

Inside Chess, 1988/9
The Lost Match: Rubinstein – Marshall, Warsaw 1908
by IM Nikolay Minev
There are many famous and fascinating matches in chess history. This is the strange story about one of them: the match between Akiba Rubinstein and Frank Marshall held in Warsaw, October 25 -November 14, 1908. A match not mentioned anywhere at that time, and even now, after 80 years, one which still remains in shadows.
That a match between these two all-time greats is virtually unknown may strain credulity. The facts – rather, the lack of facts – prove otherwise. The match is not reported in The Yearbook of Chess (London, 1907-1917); nor does it appear in the extremely popular series by … [Read more...]

by Jeff Coakley
The main attraction in this week’s column is a “carousel of cyclotrons”. But first, let’s play the old switcheroo.
In case you’re new to switcheroos, here are the rules. The goal is to put the black king in checkmate by switching the position of two pieces. No actual chess moves are made. The pieces simply swap squares.
Any two pieces can switch places. Colours do not matter. You can trade white with white, black with black, or white with black. Switching the black king is a common trick.
One important rule is that the position after the switch must be legal. A position is legal if it could occur in an actual game. This rule implies several things.
a) A … [Read more...]

by Geurt Gijssen
I recently arbitrated at a chess tournament that included many “amateurs”. I made some observations and in some cases I had to take decisions and then explain them, although they seemed very obvious to me.
Notation
1. There were some players who wrote the moves in their own scorebook, although official scoresheets were put on each board before the start of the round. In my opinion only scoresheets provided by the organiser may be used during the game. The reason is that a player who uses his own scoresheet may refuse to show this to the arbiter and even refuse to deliver it after the finish of the game. This means that some checks to some claims are impossible. To … [Read more...]

A Microcosm of Life: Knowledge vs Intelligence
by Dan Heisman
Quote of the Month: Never confuse ignorance with stupidity.
That was one of the many pieces of advice given to me by NM Richard Pariseau when I started working for him at the simulation lab of the Naval Air Development Center in the early 1970s. The corollary, of course, is
“Never confuse knowledge with intelligence.”
...a mistake often made not only by the public in general, but chess players as well.
This is a very important distinction for those trying to improve at chess. Advancing your chess knowledge is important, even crucial, but it doesn’t replace honing your skills, e.g., properly using your … [Read more...]

by Karsten Müller
Heinrich Rolletschek has made an amazing discovery regarding the famous bishop ending Pinter-Alterman, Beersheba 1991, and he has kindly allowed me to publish his findings. I also want to thank Harald Grafenhofer for his help. Now to hand over the microphone to Heinrich Rolletschek.
159.01 Diagram 1
Diagram 1 shows a position from the game Pinter-Alterman, Beersheba 1991, which had previously been analyzed by the winner, Pinter, in Encyclopedia of Chess Endings, in Nunn’s Chess Endings, and in Fundamental Chess Endings by Müller and Lamprecht. All these authors conclude that Black could have drawn with correct defense. The goal of this article is to show that … [Read more...]

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